


Hornet and Vessels

by Schnikeys_Discuss (Schnikeys)



Series: Clockie's Meta [4]
Category: Hollow Knight (Video Games)
Genre: Analysis, Archived from radioactivesupersonic Blog, Character Analysis, Gen, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Tumblr
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-05
Updated: 2017-05-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 05:34:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27049543
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Schnikeys/pseuds/Schnikeys_Discuss
Summary: "It is interesting that Hornet seems to know the vessels, and she’s one of the people who considers it a very heavy burden to bear..."
Series: Clockie's Meta [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1974223
Kudos: 9





	Hornet and Vessels

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ClockworkRainbow](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ClockworkRainbow/gifts).



Anonymous asked: Given your Hollow Knight interpretation, would that suggest that Hollow originally started following Hornet believing that she was another survivor? Although I suppose that depends on what she /is/, which seems ambiguous.

* * *

I think that it’s clear enough Hornet is not a Vessel- she doesn’t dress like one, and her proportions are different (her headshape is pretty close to an “adult” vessel but she’s the size of the Broken Vessel which definitely has more of a rounded head)

Considering how much the game rewards you for poking around, and _especially_ perking up your ears when you encounter other people in the ruins- Hornet is interesting. I think even knowing she clearly isn’t a vessel the Knight would be inclined to follow her. Even just as a spot of red against the rest of Greenpath.

It also makes sense Hornet would read that as way more ominous- the vessels have more or less a case of frozen faces and multiple people imply it is near-impossible to tell what the Knight is thinking. If your daily commute is a buried kingdom full of undead monsters and what boils down to a void-powered Frankenstein’s monster starts following you, that would be uncomfortable at the least. Her dialogue implies that she’s been catching passing glimpses of the Knight as much as they have of her- “I’ve seen you skulking around, following me.”

The White Lady makes reference to a “gendered child” that is very powerful, that she claims resembles her mother but they never spent much time together. I’ve taken that as a reference to Hornet, especially because she seems to bring it up in response to the King’s Brand which you fight Hornet to obtain.

It is interesting that Hornet seems to know the vessels, and she’s one of the people who considers it a very heavy burden to bear (“Could you do it, knowing yourself?”) and she also, unlike the Lady, brings up the possibility of a way to save Hallownest without the Knight sacrifice themselves.

Back on the topic of vessels- I think that while generally all of the vessels wear those dark-colored cloaks (the main reason Zote passes as one) the main thing is, the vessels don’t have much capacity to emote or vocalize- I would assume they do have mouths, just unseen ones, since Elderbug seems to expect them to be able to speak if they wanted (“Not that you seem the talkative sort.”)

It also is worth noting it doesn’t seem like any of the vessels have names, even to each other. This would mean it’s quite possible that the broken vessel, when it was alive, actually did overlap with the Knight at some point. Heck, it’s quite possible the Knight overlapped with the Pure Knight. It’s possible there was some kind of stasis on the vessels in the abyss preventing them from aging.

That said, I do think that it’s a little charming that Hornet is the main NPC to consistently pin the Knight with a nickname- while her calling them “Little Ghost” is first very matter-of-fact, it really does seem to become her name or them. 

**Author's Note:**

> Analysis originally found here: <https://radioactivesupersonic.tumblr.com/post/160333908360/given-your-hollow-knight-interpretation-would>


End file.
